Diabetes, long considered a disease of minor significance to world health, is now taking its place as one of the main threats to human health in the 21st century.
The past two decades have seen an explosive increase in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes worldwide. Pronounced changes in the human environment, in human behavior and lifestyle have accompanied globalization resulting in escalating rates of both obesity and diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic disease and a serious, lifelong condition. People with diabetes are unable to use the glucose in their food for energy. The glucose accumulates in the bloodstream, where it can damage the heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves. Left untreated, diabetes can develop devastating complications. It is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the United States.
The number of people in the world with diabetes is expected to more than double by 2030, with India, China, and the U.S. topping the list of countries with the most cases. Researchers estimate that 366 million people, or 4.4% of the world's population, will be diabetic by 2030, which is up from 171 million, or 2.8% of the population, in 2000. The increase is attributed primarily to population changes, including growth in the number of people over 65. These projections do not assess the effect of rising obesity rates in developed countries, so they are almost certainly underestimates. In the U.S. alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has predicted 29 million diagnosed diabetics by 2050. However, the new study, which includes undiagnosed cases, projects a steeper rise to 30.3 million by 2030.
The fact that the epidemic is most acutely felt in the developing world has significant and substantial implications for the healthcare systems of those countries. Many countries are already being overwhelmed by the need to treat diabetes and its complications, and only those individuals who can afford to pay for expensive treatments will be able to expect reasonable care.
Despite pharmacological advances in diabetes treatment, nutrition therapy (NT) remains an essential component of diabetes management and self-management education. NT for diabetes includes the process and the system by which nutrition care is provided for diabetic individuals and the specific lifestyle recommendations for that care.
An important element of nutrition therapy is water. One of the many health care concerns with diabetic patients is to staying hydrated. Water is important for everybody, but especially for diabetes-patients, because decrease of the hydration-level could cause serious health problems for diabetics. With diabetes the body is no longer capable of processing sugar or glucose independently, from nutrition.
That is because there is not enough or too little insulin being made by the body itself, or the insulin cannot do its work properly. The insulin hormone is necessary for the transport of glucose from the blood to the body tissues. If the glucose is not accepted by the body, it will release the glucose through the urine, which increases the rate of dehydration. Therefore, it is very important for diabetes patients to remain hydrated.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a beverage that provides a source of hydration for those afflicted with diabetes as well as contain other components that assist in diabetes management. It would also be desirable that the beverage contains no carbohydrates, no sugar, and no caffeine currently present in most beverages.
Finally, it would be advantageous that the beverage have a satisfactory taste so that the subject is encouraged to consume the beverage on a routine basis, which is important in the management of diabetes.